Many optical communication systems manipulate light waves to carry information. For instance, often a light source (e.g., a laser source) is modulated to change various properties of emitted light, such as an amplitude, phase, frequency, or wavelength to convey information. In some cases, an underlying signal, such as a radio frequency signal, may be modulated via amplitude, phase, or frequency modulation, or any combination thereof, and the light source may be modulated by the underlying signal. An optical receiver may collect the light waves and measure properties or variations of the light wave, from which the underlying signal and the information may be recovered.
Optical signals with phase modulation formats have several advantages over amplitude modulation formats. However, when compared to typical amplitude modulation receivers, phase modulation receivers can be significantly more complex. Some examples of phase modulation receivers may include local oscillators, Fiber Bragg Gratings (FBG), and delay line interferometers (DLI). Generally, a phase modulation receiver collects a phase-encoded optical signal and performs one or more demodulation processes to convert the phase modulation into useful information. For example, this information may include communications information encoded in the phase modulation by a transmitter, information encoded in the phase modulation through interaction of the optical signal with an object, or other information about the source of the optical signal, the optical channel through which it traveled, and/or objects with which it interacted.